Where I Was, Where I Am and Where I'll Be - Part 1

Continuing the journey of fire, smoke, and beer

Where was I?

Eight years ago, I got an itch to expand my cooking skills. I live in Texas. I'm a Texan. I love barbecue. So, I figured it was time to try smoking out.

My First Smoker

I didn't want to spend a ton of money only to find I sucked at it or it was too much hassle, so I headed over to Home Depot and got myself a cheap-o $70 bullet smoker.
As with any true test, you always try your skill with brisket (At least in Texas). So, a brisket was my first smoke.  

Now, just so you know, I watched a TON of Alton Brown's Good Eats, so science was on my brain, and not necessarily cooking.  It's worked out for me so far, but with smoking, while still important, there are some things I just need to learn from experience. But going in, everything was a system:

Start fire. Wait for coals/smoke. Place meat. Wait pre-determined amount of time on smoker. Pull meat. Rest. Slice. I'm a master.

With that logic, I can do anything on the smoker. It's your basic cooking algebra where X is the meat, Y is temperature and Z is time. Interchangeable. Perfect! No touchy-feely 'every cook is different' philosophy. I have science on my side! And for a bit, I was right on the money (read: Lucked out)

First was smoke and temperature control. With these style smokers, the fire is at the bottom and rises, along with the smoke. I was EXTREMELY worried this might turn into a grill, so I tried all my might to not have any flames in my 'fire'. Of course, no fire means lower temperature. Lower temperature means longer or non-existent cook times.

One way to stifle the fire was using soaked wood. It seemed everyone did this so you get a smolder and not a fire, so I did that. I added soaked wood chunks on the coals (just like 'that guy' on TV) and watched the temperature drop dramatically.

So, I paniced. I started blowing on the embers. Nothing. I considered adding lighter fluid (And I think I did once or twice) but the wet wood never caught and the fluid burned up so quickly without time to soak into anything to catch. So out of desperation, I grabbed a small fan and blew on the coals to get oxygen in there and raise the temperature.

Once the water from the soaked wood evaporated, the wood caught fire (whodathunk?) And we were back to the whole fire is bad, stifle fire, temperature drops, blow on coals, temperature rises fire starts, repeat.

My First Brisket

And this is what I did for a good 8+ hours. It was an exhausting fight, and the bullet almost won. BUT, when I finally got the brisket at the correct internal temperature of 165 degrees (We'll talk about that in another post - I just lucked out on this one) I pulled it, let it rest and sliced.

Knowing what I know now, I was SO lucky this turned out well.  Great flavor. Great smoke. Tender. Absolutely delicious.

I'm a pit master! (I thought) and could do no wrong! (More on that, also later)

Extremely pleased, and apparently forgetting how much of a struggle temperature control on that thing was for me, I've concluded smoking is a good fit for me.

Next smoke was pork ribs. Started the fire. Got the rack of ribs on. And proceeded for the next 4-ish hours fighting with the bullet and its temperature.

This round wasn't as great. Ribs were a bit dry, but tasted good enough, so it was still a win in my book.

He's got legs, and doesn't know how to use them

So, what's next? I was craving Texas State Fair style smoked turkey legs! So, gathered a few pounds of legs at the grocer, brined them (love, love, LOVE brining pork and poultry) and set on the smoker.

Again. Fought with the bullet the whole time. As if I'm not learning from my mistakes. (Admittedly, I blamed the bullet itself, thinking with this cheap device, and that's just how it is)

Legs were done. Looked good. Smelled good. But wasn't. No seasoning on the outside skin. I figured the smoke was seasoning enough. That's all I tasted when I had one of these at the State Fair or other food vendor place that sells these. What gives?

So, for those keeping score at home I went from great, to okay but passable, to fail. Isn't it supposed to go the opposite direction with each successive cook?

Over the year of having this I did maybe 1 or 2 more smokes, but determined because of the effort. And how time consuming it is because I had to be right next to it and not do anything else for the next X hours, maybe this just wasn't for me.

Then, the Internet bestowed upon me something marvelous...

To be continued